Anthology - That's Amore!

An omnibus of novels by Tori Carrington, Janelle Denison and Leslie Kelly, published May 1 2005,
Genre: contemporary romance
Cover: fun



Three lovestories, tied together by partyfavors send to the wrong couple. It was a fun way to set this up.

Meet the Parents by Janelle Denison

Like all dutiful Hawaiian daughters, Leila Malekala is expected to marry a Hawaiian groom handpicked by her parents. But guess what, Mom and Dad - Leila has wedding plans of her own. The groom is California bad boy Jason Crofton - and the bride is pregnant.

On vacation for a week on Hawaii, Jason falls hard for the beautiful Leila, and she falls right back at him. But how can their relationship grow when he lives in California, and she on Hawaii, and her parents want her to marry an Hawaiian man. Still, they fight for what they have, and slowly Jason wins her parents over, but it certainly is not easy!

I really liked this story, I have not read an Hawaiian love story before. Jason does his best to learn the customs of his beloved, and to make her happy.


I Do, Don't I? By Tori Carrington

Efi Panayotopoulou is about to marry her childhood sweetheart Nick Constantino. Everything should be perfect. But their families seem hell-bent on turning the wedding into a farce or Greek tragedy. And Efi is about a baklava flake away from running off - without her groom.

Efi is looking forward to marrying her beloved Nick, but both their families seem determined to keep them apart for this last week before the wedding, a week filled with family and festivities. And when her parents expect her to stop working in the family bakery, something she dearly loves, and become a fulltime wife and mother, Efi starts rethinking things. Is that with Nick expects as well? And when his parents demand a dowry from hers, and he thinks it the most normal thing there is, well. He better start rethinking listening to his parents all the time!
And then her ugly-duckling-turned-beautiful cousin keeps trying to seduce her fiancé, and he seems totally oblivious to the fact!

I liked Efi, she finally started to see reality and she started thinking about what would happen after the wedding with their lives. She is no docile little woman and won't become one either, no matter how much she loves Nick.


There Goes the Groom by Leslie Kelly

Luke Santori is engaged to "a nice Italian girl" from his Chicago neighborhood. But wedding plans get tossed - like unbaked dough at his family's pizzeria - when Luke falls for blond-haired, blue-eyed Rachel Grant - the dressmaker designing his fiancé's bridal gown.

Luke still has no idea how he ended up proposing to Maria, except perhaps being jealous of his brothers' newly wedded happiness, and wanting it for his own. But Maria changed into a bridezilla, and seems to look down at all the traditional Italian wedding customs. And he might be a successful prosecutor, but he does believe in tradition.

And then there is Rachel, a lovely woman whom he can't seem to forget, and who keeps crossing his path. Yes, he does search her out in her bridal shop as well, and comes to her rescue when another man doesn't want to take no for an answer. I liked Rachel a lot, she is curvy and tries to be businesslike, but she just isn't. She is chaotic but she has a big heart, and she already loves his family.
As it turns out, Maria has a secret reason to become a bridezilla, and it involves her dentist …


A lovely anthology, lots of humor and nice characters and I did enjoy all three stories. I bought it for the Lesly Kelly story, as that was the one author I knew. But I will read more books by all three authors given the chance.

8 stars.

© 2015 Reviews by Aurian